US Secretary of State John Kerry stated that rebels need to distance themselves from fundamentalist opposition groups such as Jabhat al Nusrah, seemingly acknowledging for the first time that opposition groups including western deemed moderates have and continue to work closely with fundamentalist Islamic opposition groups.

If not, there would be no need to distance themselves.

According to the New York Times, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said that:

‘Russia, the United States and its allies, and the Syrian government had all agreed on terms for a cease-fire but that the Syrian government said “the opposition continues to shoot.”

He said the United States had tried to define the territory of the truce “in such a way as to include a significant part of the positions held by the Nusra Front.”

He added, “This was absolutely unacceptable, and at the end we managed to strike it down.”

As reported on The WIDER View many times, this close working relationship between fundamentalist and western deemed moderate opposition groups has continued throughout the Syrian conflict.

Western main stream media news outlets and politicians alike have failed to make this co-operation clear to their respective public, instead choosing to deceive their audiences by lumping most opposition groups under the moderate narrative, fighting for a free, democratic Syria.

A clear contradiction on the battlefield with alleged moderate groups assisting or being assisted by fundamentalist Sunni Islamic groups and coalitions. Some of which are internationally recognized terrorist organizations such as Jabhat al Nusrah, Jabhat Ansar al Din and the Turkistan Islamic Party.

Evidence of such assistance between fundamentalist and western deemed moderate groups can be seen in related links at the bottom of this post.

This co-operation also goes someway to understanding the perpetual narrative by western politicians and main stream media news outlets that Russian forces have targeted western deemed moderate groups.

This may be true, however, how many have been targeted due to them fighting alongside the many, large and influential fundamentalist Islamic groups?